It's a big one this week, and we've got some exciting builds to look at, so we're pretty much going to jump straight in. Things continue to look pretty positive, with strong showings from lots of factions and some good Chaos Space Marine finishes with the new book, which is good news.

The only concern I've got from looking through the week's top lists is that there's a definite skew towards the factions with the best Secondaries, with the Adepta Sororitas and Necrons being the standouts there. Genuinely, honestly, if you asked me right now which faction is looking most like it could be a bit of a problem, the answer might be Necrons. As we'll see, they are both putting up very strong finishes, and generally doing so with an abnormally large number of 100pt blowouts, usually indicative that something is going to need to change. I should stress, however, that their dominance is nowhere near as extreme as some of the previous metagame tyrants we've seen, and there are plenty of other armies clearly able to challenge them, but right now I'm looking at just how pushed their Secondaries are in combination with Eternal Conquerors and raising my eyebrows slightly.

This week we'll be covering:

• Lone Star Open (supermajor)
• Madrid GT (major)
• Salt City Open (being treated as an honorary major)
• Baltic Cup IX - Preparation
• GT Hidalgo
• Glasshammer GT #9
• Showdown at Frogtowm
• Overwatch Battle Royale II

As always, where any players not in first place went undefeated, this is noted next to their placing.

Frontline Gaming Lone Star Open 40K Champs 2022

207-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Frontline Gaming, Allen, TX, US on July 23 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

This event was using player-placed terrain. In addition, I should note that due to an issue with a ruling that was made and then reversed, the round 4 match between the players in 4th and 5th at this event got scored as a draw. The winner of their game would have been in competition for a top finish.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Abandoned Sanctuaries

Gavin LeClair - Necrons: Silent King Eternal Expansionists with Szeras, a big warrior unit and a big Lychguard block, plus five-model units of Skorpekh and Wraiths.



vs.

Marshall Peterson - Necrons: The Silent King and Szeras again, this time with two big Lychguard blocks, 6/3/3 on Skorpekh, and a full Ophydian block.

Thoughts

A Necron mirror on the top table of a supermajor. What a world. Both these lists are on the non-C'tan version of the Eternal Expansionists plan, which means they want to use the volume of ObSec bodies they've got access to to dominate the Primary and quickly score their secondaries. Both have some crunchier melee units as troubleshooters, both have The Silent King as a mid game domination piece, and both are packing my boy Illuminor Szeras to further amp up their high quality units. So who wins when they face off?

Generally, the goal in this game is going to be to deplete the opponent's quality stuff faster than they can deplete yours - committing the minimum amount you possibly can to force a response, then aiming to trade up when that response happens. More than in a lot of matchups, simply ending up with more stuff left is a very credible way to win this game. The other way that this came could turn would be if one player takes a swing with one of their big melee units and "misses", and if a high-rolled turn of shooting from one side inflicts serious damage on the others Silent King at an inoportune moment. It's also, to be fair, a game where going first is going to provide a very big advantage, as the player who does so is going to get a rocket boost to their Secondary scoring, and force a heavier commitment to the mid board from the opponent if they want to do the same.

Looking at the lists, I'd say more of these factors end up favouring Marshall's build, simply because more of his mobile units can actually fight. The small Skorpekh units are a gamble in some games but they're great here, as they'll comfortably trade up on the charge and can mob up something like Scarabs with ease. The big Ophydian unit also matches up very well into the Wraiths as roving threats go, as their -1 to hit in melee is a pretty big deal if they end up fighting. Lychguard blocks are also the units most likely to cause a terminal "bounce" on either side, and Marshall has two. The Warriors can also soak up a charge, but unless they're on the middle objective at a time, they won't do real damage on a swingback, whereas the Lychguard very much will, so it matters more.

The other thing Marshall has going for him is the three Plasmacytes - while these can't Action, they can hold objectives, and only have to stay within 6" of a Destroyer unit. Because they're ObSec, this means they can move onto an objective as a very cheap sacrifice, and then whichever Destroyers are lurking nearby can roll up whatever comes to shift them. Marshall's list isn't the only one this week where the Plasmacytes can cover this role, and I strongly suspect that these might be one of the things that ends up needing a tweak - they should probably work the same as Spore Mines and not be able to hold objectives, but not count for opposing kill objectives either as a tradeoff.

That's not to say there's nothing helping Gavin out though. If he can get the Warrior blob operating on the middle objective it's going to demand a quick answer, as it's the only thing on either side that's getting the double counting benefit of Eternal Conquerors, and pretty durable to boot. Three Lokhust heavies flitting around the backfield also gives him more of a chance to spike some ranged damage on the Silent King, forcing Marshall to be a bit more cautious with his than Gavin has to be.

That appears not to have been enough however, as Marshall was able to take the game with a maximum point score (his fifth of the weekend, which is quite something).

Result

Necrons (Marshall) Victory - 100 - 58

Marshall Peterson - Necrons - 1st Place

The Silent King. Credit: Pendulin

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Eternal Expansionists

Thoughts

Marshall's list is a very strong example of the archetype, and as discussed in the Showdown is well tuned for the possibility of the mirror. While it gets fewer fast throwaways like Scarabs, more of the units in this army can actually kill something if it comes to a fight, helping with trades in mirrors and inflicting more attrition on other opponents, helping avoid the threat of falling behind on units. The Plasmacytes allow him to pull this off without losing the option of putting something entirely sacrificial out in the open, adding up to a very powerful build. Congratulations Marshall.

Brad Townsend - Thousand Sons - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

Archetype

Cult of Duplicity

Thoughts

Double Scarab Duplicity doesn't really need any introduction, but there are some tweaks from standard here that help in the current metagame. Specifically, rather than bringing stuff like Spawn, almost all the points outside Terminators and Characters get dumped into Rubricae, three units of which have Warpflamers. The threat of these teleporting in and roasting something is very real, and particularly good in the Necron and Sisters matchups, where the guns are very effective at clearing out some of their objective play units. It also means the army is playing with a tonne of ObSec, helping push back against lists where that's the big plan. Good tuning and well rewarded with an undefeated second place, great stuff from Brad.

Vyasar M Ganesan - Tyranids - 3rd Place (Undefeated)

Tyranid Warriors. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Leviathan goodstuff

Thoughts

Leviathan Goodstuff - it's still good. This list has a powerful toolbox of killing machines, makes the opponent's life very difficult with Spore Mines if they can't kill the Harpies, and has a big durable ObSec brick of Warriors when it needs to fight for objectives.

Kevin McCormick - Chaos Knights - 4th Place (Undefeated with a Draw)

War Dog - Brigand. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Abaddon Walks the Dogs

Thoughts

Abaddon is a monstrously powerful unit, and this is the first (but I'm sure not the last) outing for him in a Chaos Soup setup. Vextrix War Dogs combine with Abaddon extremely well - their built in re-rolls plus the ability to Daemonic Surge added on top of his re-roll 1s aura for Chaos CORE makes their shooting incredibly reliable, and there's a lot of guns pointed at the opponent out of this list. They also provide excellent ObSec pressure, and the three Stalkers and Abaddon are more than enough melee threat to discourage opponents from getting too close.

The War Dogs are also an especially good soup choice because they're not reliant on access to Warlord Traits or relics to do their thing like some other Chaos Factions. You don't (in Nephilim) lose access to Secondaries for having Abaddon as your Warlord (because he's an Agent of Chaos) but you do lose access to Codex upgrade stratagems. Since Chaos Knights have an exceptionally good suite of points upgrades (very much on show here) they've got other options for accessing additional spice, and this list has some very nasty stuff like the Blood Shield up its sleeve. Also, because a Super Heavy without any TITANIC units only costs 3CP, you do actually end up with CP left to buy Abaddon his Traits and throw up some early defensive stratagems, only a good thing!

In terms of all out ultraviolence this list is pretty up there in terms of what it can do, and that in combination with the ObSec and counts as five War Dogs makes this a very powerful choice into a meta where Necrons are a big deal. Adepta Sororitas is probably a tougher matchup, but Abaddon is very good into them, which can certainly help. This list is ready to go places, and congratulations to Kevin on rounding out the top four.

The Best of the Rest

There was one more player who went 5.5-0.5 and (sigh) 14 players on 5-1. They were:

• 5th (Undefeated with a draw) - Robert Hawkins - Death Guard: Inexorable with lots of Bloat Drones and Plagueburst Crawlers, Mortarion in command, and summoning points free for Epidemius and a Poxbringer to really get Nurgle's tally going. Very nasty into opponents that can't do lots of damage up close, as in those games it will apply brutal pressure.
• 6th - Kit Smith Hanna - Tyranids: Territorial Lurk Jormundgandr monster mash with all sorts of spicy beasts, including Old One Eye.
• 7th - Noah Beddome - Imperial Knights: Taranis with the Master Tactician/Princeps Paladin combo, but sticking with just an Errant rather than a Crusader to keep the whole army aggressive.
• 8th - Colin McDade - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff. Went into the last round undefeated and lost to Brad Townsend by a single point.
• 9th - Gavin LeClair - Necrons: (see showdown).
• 10th - Nathan Fennel - Harlequins: Twilight Saedath with boats and Skyweavers.
• 11th - Justin Moore - Adeptus Mechanicus: Mars Veteran Cohort with lots of Ruststalkers and a full unit of Ironstriders.
• 12th - Cody Says - Necrons: Silent King Eternal Expansionists with the Deceiver and Void Dragon, plus Doom Scythes.
• 13th - Russell Tassin - Black Legion: The master of the Black Legion returns, packing Abaddon, a big brick each of Terminators and Chosen, and some nasty Characters. Went into the last round undefeated and narrowly lost to Vyasar.
• 14th - Jason Manning - Tyranids: Board control-heavy Leviathan, with lots of Warriors and some Raveners, plus a few monsters to back up.
• 15th - Nicholas Henry - Necrons: Double C'tan Silent King Expansionists again, with Wraiths, Skorpekh and Tomb Blades in support.
• 16th - Nick Toomey - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff with big Retributor units and a Castigator.
• 17th - Timothy Travers - Chaos Knights: House Khometis big Knights and Infernal Dreadblades War Dogs team up, with one unit of Khometis Karnivores also in play to make use of Encircling Hounds when needed.
• 18th - Cody Hostuttler - Grey Knights: Rapiers with Paladins, Characters and Interceptors.
• 19th - Samuel White - Orks: Goff Pressure with Squighogs, Kill Rigs and Ghaz.
• 20th - Jared Gomez - Deathwatch: All-in Kill Team Strike Force with Proteus Teams designed to split into shooty and melee Combat Squads, a Spectrus unit with all the toys, and a mighty four drop pods with which to slam into battle.

Madrid GT

60-player, 8-round Major in Madrid, run by Kingdom Wargames (instagram link) on July 23 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

This event cut to a top eight, who played three knockout rounds.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Conversion

Koldo Gonzalez - T'au Empire: Heavily mechanised Farsight Enclaves with lots of Devilfish, Hammerheads and Sun Shark bombers.

vs.

Victor Manuel Gil Rocha - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff with two units of Paragons.

Thoughts

Two powerful factions on show here, both with some unusual elements in their builds. The Farsight Enclaves lists very much showcases one of the options Tau have available in Nephilim, which is to lean into the units that didn't get point hikes in Chapter Approved. Far more of their stuff dodged any increase than was true for Craftworlds or Tyranids, and it turns out plenty of this stuff was powerful too, just frozen out by the really wild units. This list presents a very durable target profile, can push a lot of damage into an opponent's face very quickly, and has some good options for adapting to the circumstances. The Sun Sharks are a nice touch, and something that's showing up a bit more in Tau lists - these are very good against The Silent King (and other multi-vehicle units like the Paragons here) in a list with Exemplar of the Kauyon. If you go first they can fly straight over him and off the board, bombing out both his Menhirs on average, and at that point when they re-appear on turn two many Eternal Expansionist lists are never going to be able to clear them, letting them do spectacular damage over the rest of the game. If you go second, you can just pull them to Strategic Reserves, and sure you have to wait before they start doing damage, but you don't lose them either.

Over on the other side, the Paragons are the obvious standout, and two units of these up against the Sun Sharks has the potential to make this game quite swingy. The sharks are very nasty into them if they get to do their bombing trick, getting most of the way to picking up a whole unit just from that, but if they don't their low AP weaponry is pretty bad at chipping the Paragons down, true of most things in this Tau list other than the Hammerheads - which are also very swingy in terms of how well they do.

On balance, it feels like there are more ways for the Paragons to quickly become scrap metal than not - but that's not the same thing as counting the Sororitas out here. The Tau list's plan for playing objectives is pretty reliant on opponents struggling to deal with lots of hulls being pushed into them on multiple angles, but that simply isn't the case here - even down a unit of Paragons, this Sisters build will go through multiple tanks like a hot knife, and has the mobility to counterpunch very hard, and will run away with the scoring if that's allowed to happen (and their Secondaries are definitely better in this game, there's very little Tau can do about Defend the Shrine).

I think if you're the Tau here your plan has to be to go for a counter-counter punch - rather than the conventional option of leading with the Devilfish, push out with the Hammerheads first, then use a sweeping Combat Debarkation to deploy infantry to clear out a lot of the Sisters indantry. That might tip the momentum the Tau's way, especially if they can clear out the crunchier Zephyrim at this key juncture. There's definitely a real game here from both directions in working out what to commit with when - both sides have toys that work very well into some of the opponent's stuff, and need to identify the perfect moment to get the most value. I do think the Sisters have the advantage that, similar to the previous showdown, there's more chance of the Tau swinging at them and critically bouncing off than in the other direction, but all those breachers demand respect. The Sisters took this in the end, but the Tau clearly put up a fight.

Result

Adepta Sororitas Victory - 93 - 65

Victor Manuel Gil Rocha - Adepta Sororitas - 1st Place

Credit: Evan "Felime" Siefring

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Bloody Rose Goodstuff with Extra Paragons

Thoughts

Paragon Warsuits are definitely high-risk, high-reward, and here the outcome was clearly reward. They make the list especially crunchy at close quarters, and are handy against a lot of the D2 melee in the metagame, but you're always going to be slightly fearful of the game arriving where something just smokes them immediately. As discussed above, of course, the Sisters army can still win games when they get taken out, and there is some degree to which an opponent getting overly fixated on killing them can cause them to make poor target priority decisions - overwhelmingly against this list it's the Zephyrim you actually want dead if you're a mobile army! In the event, it's clear no one was able to challenge the might of the Paragons at sufficient pace to win, as Victor was undefeated across the full eight rounds - congratulations!

Koldo Gonzalez - T'au Empire - 2nd Place

T'au Stealth Suit Credit: Beanith

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Mech Farsight

Thoughts

Get up close and make them dead! Funnily enough, this is the kind of build that most appealed to me when we first looked at the codex, and it's goof to see it thriving now that Crisis aren't so overwhelmingly strong. This list demands fairly hefty killing power to clear out quickly, and does enough damage itself that opponents are on a sharp clock to pull that off, making it look very tasty. Well done to Koldo on taking second.

Alberto Nicolas - Orks - 3rd Place

Ork Beastboss on Squigosaur. Credit: Magos Sockbert

The List

Archetype

Blood Axe Board Control

Thoughts

All sorts of unusual things on show in the Spanish metagame, with this list looking a bit like Goff Pressure, but using Blood Axes to trade raw killing power for trickery. The event was running with excellent terrain from the maps I've seen, and that means that there's lots of opportunities for the three units of Kommandos here to skulk somewhere annoying, then use Surprize! to absolutely ruin the day of whatever comes hunting them. Blood Axes also ensure the list has plenty of CP for stratagems like that, porentially also very useful for Snagga Grapple and Monster Hunterz. Finally, Light Cover at a distance reduces early attrition into the Squighogs and Kill Rigs, and being able to Fall Back and Charge lets the army be very mobile. You end up with a build that can still put the opponent under a lot of pressure, even if not quite as much as full send Goffs, and one that makes it far more challenging for the opponent to extract themselves onces battle is joined. Cool to see something different tried from Alberto in third.

Eduardo Muñoz Serrano - Knights Renegades - 4th Place

Chaos Knights. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Vextrix

Thoughts

No Abaddon? No Problem! This list combines the truly appaling firepower of Vextrix War Dogs in re-roll aura (Huntsmen here, giving some melee flexibility) with the nigh unkillable wrecking ball of a fully buffed Abominant. Opponents are going to take serious damage getting close to this army, and may be left in a state where they simply cannot handle the pressure, allowing the diabolical forces of chaos to roll them over. It's a good week for Chaos Knights, and this build looks very potent, congratulations to Eduardo on 4th.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top eight was as follows:

• 5th - Luis Terroxer - Thousand Sons: Cult of Duplicity with double Scarab Occults and a Volkite Contemptor boosted with the Orrery.
• 6th - Gonzalo Raven - Harlequins: Twilight Saedath with 3x5 zephyrglaive-wielding Skyweavers alongside boats and characters.
• 7th - Alejandro Tortosa - Craftworlds: Ulthwe Goodstuff with lots of small Aspect units, catapult Windriders and a block of D-Cannons.
• 8th - Juan José Rojo Ferrer - Tyranids: Leviathan Goodstuff with a couple of Harpies and a mixture of other monsters, including Old One Eye.

The Salt City GT

55-player, 8-round Major in Syracuse, NY, US on July 22 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - The Scouring

Anthony Vanella - Chaos Space Marines: Abaddon and Emperor's Children, featuring nasty Characters, a full Terminator block, Noise Marines and Possessed.

vs.

TJ Lanigan - Thousand Sons: Cult of Duplicity double-Scarab Occult, with lots of cultists and solo spawn as sacrificial units.

Thoughts

Full Chaos-off on the top tables here, with the established powerhouse of the Cult of Duplicity taking on Anthony's powerful Emperor's Children build. The Thousand Sons are a fairly known quantity, so what can the new arrivals do?

Quite a bit - there's a bunch going on with this list. The "obvious" units are Abaddon and a big block of Terminators with the Black Rune, early standouts from the book. The Terminators are particularly nasty here because the Emperor's Children trait lets them ignore the hit penalty for their power fists, making them extra deadly, and with the Mark of Slaanesh they will of course be fighting first. Layering Illusory Supplication on top makes them a nightmare to shift at range too. Backing them up for close engagements are two units of Possessed, extremely dangerous hammer units for the price, love a bunch of the Emperor's Children Stratagems, and love getting Slaanesh-ified so that they have access to Excessive Cruelty to trap unwary opponents. Lucius and the Lord Discordant (a complete nightmare with full re-rolls, mortals and one free use of Fight Last per game) are also both top tier melee threats, helping amp up the danger further. The army is less overwhelmingly exciting at range, but Murderous Perfection is very good on lascannon havocs in some matchups, and Excruciating Frequencies plus full hit re-rolls from Abaddon makes the Noise Marines spicy. This list looks super nasty, and well equipped to face down most opponents.

What happens when these two clash then? Who gets to be the most facoured of the Dark Gods? For my money, a couple of things look to favour the Chaos Space Marines, though it's far from a sure thing. The Scouring is pretty feast or famine for Thousand Sons - the objective map can allow Scarab Occults to seriously dominate the primary, but if also forces them to engage with serious units earlier than they might want, and reduces the impact of Sorcerous Facade and the Umbralefic Crystal. The CSM list here can clear the non-Scarab units fast enough when they commit that the Scarabs are going to have to engage, and when that happens there's a chance that it's something seriously nasty crashing into them.

There is a flip side of course, which is that the CSM list doesn't have many Psychic defences, and doesn't have that many "spare" units to soak up wounds from the Psychic grind. That means that if they don't get damage flowing very quickly this game could turn against them, but it feels like they should be able to carve out a window to do that.

Helping them out with that is the fact that there are no Psykers in Anthony's army, which puts the Thousand Sons under lots of Secondary pressure. It means no Wrath of Magnus, weaker Sorcerous Prowess, and Abhor the Witch being available to Anthony. Burn Empires is a very all-in pick on this objective map too, and even Grind might be dicey in the first turn. Plus, any Action Secondary runs up against the relatively low unit count the Thousand Sons have and wanting to perform Actions for the Primary, and Anthony ends up with access to a set of choices where he can just focus his efforts on annihilating the Sons, which he can very much do if he gets to engage on his terms. The Scouring helps him do just that, and means this game favours him. TJ was able to put up a strong score despite this, but the CSM list walked away with the big hundo, earning Anthony the trophy.

Result

Chaos Space Marines Victory - 100 - 88

Anthony Vanella - Chaos Space Marines - 1st Place

Emperor's Children Noise Marines. Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Emperor's Children

Thoughts

Covered in the showdown, but very much one of the strongest CSM lists I've yet seen, and one to really watch. Anthony is no stranger to big wins, but it's cool to see him picking one up with a new army!

Sam Procopio - Blood Angels - 2nd Place

Blood Angels Intercessors. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Archetype

Blood Angels Jet Pack Spam

Thoughts

In second place we have a great showing by the Blood Angels, who are looking like hot stuff in the new metagame.Good boosts to their Secondaries and discounts on Sanguinary guard make them extra strong in a vacuum, and they're well placed to beat down on some other top armies as well, having the killing power to just flatten Necron lists that try and get too clever, and brawling effectively with other power armoured armies.

This list has got some neat tech choices added to it. Watching Space Marine players begrudginly put actual scouts in their list so they can keep their Storms is pretty funny, but it's certainly a respectable choice in an army like this that sometimes needs bait. Also neat is the use of Eliminators loaded out as they are, as they're very, very flexible. If you need one they can provide a scout deploy screen, and one that's a nightmare to shift out of cover (again making for great bait to set up counter charges), while if that's not required, being able to move after shooting means that they'll be cracking off a steady volley of D3 shots for the rest of the game. I suspect 3x3 Eliminators is going to be something that pops up in an increasing number of lists as people get used to how versatile they are, and if they do Sam will have been ahead of the curve.

Isaac Scharp - Necrons - 3rd Place

Canoptek Scarab Swarm. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Silent King Eternal Expansionists

Thoughts

This is pretty much the opposite end of how to build Eternal Expansionists from Marshall's LSO list - tthis list is all about having enough ObSec bodies that the opponent just cannot compete on the Primary and the Necrons can race to 45 on Secondaries. That does make it a bit more vulnerable to getting bowled over if it hits the wrong kind of game (I would not want to be in the drivign seat against Sam's Blood Angels, for example) but the scoring potential here is near unmatched - Isaac had the highest VP total of any player at the event, dropping only 38pts total over 8 rounds, which is serious stuff.

Casey Glynn - Necrons - 4th Place

Necron Warriors. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Archetype

Silent King Eternal Expansionists with a C'tan

Thoughts

More Eternal Expansionists, here packing a Transcendant C'tan as a unique tool. C'tan are seeint plenty of play at their new, lower prices, and we'll see a double C'tan list later, but this list showcases the fact that a Transcenant is now cheap enough that some lists can just build one in as a value piece. Sky of Falling Stars is great against the Adepta Sororitas, and some armies can be forced into fairly risky plays just via one existing on an objective, especially with speedy Ophydian Destroyers ready to trade up into something on the counter. Big fan of C'tan, big fan of Ophydians, big fan of Casey's list.

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more players on 6-2 records. They were:

• 5th - TJ Lanigan - Thousand Sons: See Showdown.
• 6th - Jeremy Atkinson - Dark Angels: The Ravenwing return, taking advantage of newly discounted Storm Speeders and the classics of Attack Bikes and powerful Characters to create a mobile, deadly force that can take full advantage of the Death on the Wing secondary.
• 7th - Michael Norton - Tyranids: Leviathan Warrior Spam with some big bugs backing them up.
• 8th - Robbie Allen - Harlequins: Light Saedath, continuing the general trend of a pivot towards Skyweavers, packing two full haywire/glaive units alongside Troupes in boats and Characters.
• 9th - Michael Worth - Dark Angels: The other side of the Dark Angels coin, running Deathwing Knights, a tooled up Deathwing Terminator squad, and two units of claw/bolter Relic Terminators. Doesn't have an easy ride on Stubborn Defiance any more, but still daunting to face down.

Baltic Cup IX - Preparation

52-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Hamburg, HH, DE on July 23 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Tide of Conviction

Max Schierbecker - Harlequins: Light Saedath boat spam.

vs.

Kayu Orellana - Tyranids: Go-wide Jormungandr, using Naturalised Camoflage and the Jormungandr trait to bait opponents in close then bully them.

Thoughts

Business as usual from the Light Saedath side here, but a very unique Tyranid list. The Hive Fleet Adaptation here makes all the units very pesty to remove, and they're all at least modestly dangerous, making it very likely that an opponent bites off more than they can chew or gets baited into a trap. Being able to just naturally chuck the pyrovores into deep strike is very handy in general (no Tyrannocyte needed) and super good in this matchup in particular - without range reduction into Starweavers, the D2 flamer mode on Pyrovores is one of the best possible tools for taking one out reliably, and a lot of stuff in this list is dangerous to Troupes once they're exposed.

I do think the Harlequins probably have the right tools to gradually isolate and destroy this army if they get to choos etheir battles, but this is our regularly scheduled game where Tide of Conviction thwarts that kind of plan. To fight for the Primary at all in the early game here is going to mean sacrificing real units for the Harlequins, whereas the Tyranids have more stuff they're willing to just run out. The Tyranids also have some tools like Deathleaper to temporarily lock in an objective, further amplifying their advantage on Primary. Cranial Feasting is also pretty good here, and while the Harlequin secondaries are pretty potent, both the good ones are only going to amplify their gradual losses of material here. You should never entirely count the clowns out, but this time they were fairly convincingly eaten.

Result

Tyranids Victory - 16 - 4

Kayu Orellana - Tyranids - 1st Place

Credit: BuffaloChicken

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Go-wide Jormundgandr

Thoughts

This is a euro event and we're not far out from WTC, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was a teams list being tested out - curve ball angles on playing hard into objectives is exactly the kind of thing you see in teams. As Kayu's success here shows, however, a strong objective plan can always take you to the top in singles as well!

The Best of the Rest

There were 8 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Max Schierbecker - Harlequins: See Showdown.
• 3rd - Sebastian Maack - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff with a unit of Paragons.
• 4th - Thorsten Martin - Necrons:  Eternal Expansionists with two Transcendent C'tan, plus the Silent King, lots of objective grabbers and a Doom Scythe.
• 5th - Thomas Brutscher - Necrons: Silent King Eternal Expansionists with tonnes of wounds to keep objectives locked up, including Scarabs, Flayed Ones, Skorpekh and Tomb Blades.
• 6th - Jan Heidirch - Thousand Sons: Cult of Duplicity with two Scarab blocks and a few Tzaangor units for some cheap sacrifices.
• 7th - Matthias Bellmann - Aeldari: Hail of Doom with loads of Dire Avengers and some small melee units plus Baharroth to help with Wrath of Khaine.
• 8th - Chris Ludvigsen - Drukhari: Chronos Drukhari, bringing back the classic of Dark Technomancers on a whole bunch of super flamers. Backed up with some transport-riding Goodstuff units.
• 9th - Fred Otto - Drukhari: More Chronos, this time backed by heavy firepower in the form of two Ravagers and two Voidravens.

Showdown At Frogtown

50-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Toledo, OH, US on July 23 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Death and Zeal

Thomas Ogden - T'au Sept: Two Crisis Teams, Two Commanders, Two Sunsharks, Shadowsun and Longstrike.

vs.

Joe Rammuni - Goffs: Heavy hitting Goffs with lots of Squighogs, Ghaz and a pair of Wazboms.

Thoughts

Two extremely top-heavy examples of two powerful archetypes here, both sides going for quality over quantity. Thomas's Tau list has exactly two units that are even slightly expendable, and while the Orks have a few more drops, they're still going harder on spicy toys than normal.

The dynamic here ends up being a pretty simple one on this mission, in my opinion. The Tau absolutely have the tools to take the Orks off the table, but it's also absurdly unsafe for them to play the Primary until they've made a dent in the opposition. Tau therefore need to focus on making it safe to start taking 8pt Primary turns as quickly as possible without sacrificing the tools to get max points in later turns (plus finish objectives like Aerospace Relays), and almost certainly pick Kauyon. The Orks want to do the opposite - score as many max points turns early on as possible, finish off Get Dat Good Bits as quickly as they can (which the Grots are very helpful for), and try and either retain enough stuff that they're still squeezing out eight point turns later on or do enough damage to the Tau that they can't fully exploit a mostly swept table. The Orks are almost inevitably going to dominate the early game, and the Tau the late game, so both sides want to try and ensure the tipping point where one of these flips to the other ends up in their favour. From the scoreline, both players had a good go at this, but it was the Tau who managed to seize control early enough to take a bigger score and the win.

Result

T'au Sept Victory - 95 - 83

Thomas Ogden - T'au Sept - 1st Place

Tau Commander. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Tau Sept Goodstuff

Thoughts

It seems to be a week for high-risk, high-reward builds - the quality of the units in this list is exceptional and its damage potential terrifying, but with so few sacrificial units (though I guess the occasional option to use Designated Tasking to make new ones) it's also incredibly reliant on good target priority to clear out safe zones for scoring. Thomas is another player who's no stranger to the top tables of course, and there's definitely some overlap in vibes between this and the Dark Angels list he racked up some wins with, so it's perhaps unsurprising that he was able to take down the event with this, putting up a set of scores to match the top Necron performances to boot.

The Best of the Rest

There were 8 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Joe Rammuni - Orks: See Showdown.
• 3rd - Joshua Minnich - Black Legion: Abaddon, a big Terminator squad with the Black Rune, and an imported unit of Warpflamer Rubricae. More powerful herohammer and some troops (including one larger Legionary unit) to finish up.
• 4th - Manik Gudimani - Tyranids: Extra shooty Leviathan Goodstuff, featuring a pair of rupture cannon Tyrannofexes.
• 5th - Matthew Tarantine - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff with a Castigator.
• 6th - Jason Sniegowski - Tyranids: Kraken Pressure with lots of Raveners, two units of Zoanthropes, and Carnifexes and Tyrants backing them up.
• 7th - Anthony Hilla - Necrons: Silent King Eternal Expansionists with a bunch of objective grabbers, three units of Skorpekh and the Nightbringer.
• 8th - Justin Curtis - Black Legion: An actual Noctilith Crown on the table, what a hero. Very interesting list too - Justin brought both Haarken and Abaddon, and aimed to maximise their impact by packing big units of stuff - two full Legionary units, Raptors for Haarken to babysit and a massive brick of bikers with the Black Rune as a durable hammer.
• 9th - Ben Isenhoff - Black Legion: All-rounder Black Legion with a bit of everything, and Abaddon naturally at the helm

Glasshammer GT #9

44-player GT in Telford. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Secure Missing Artifacts

Chris Kinnair - Necrons: Silent King Eternal Expansionists with Tomb Blades and Annihilation Barges as the objective grabbers, then both the Nightbringer and Void Dragon as hammer blows, all rounded out with a full unit of Lokhusts.



vs.

Ben Jones - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff with Celestine and Vahl, plus the true holy trinity of tonnes of Zephyrim, Repentia and Retributors, finished off with an Inquisitor for Psychic Actions.

Thoughts

Do you know what's really good against Sororitas? C'tan. What does this Necron build have two of? C'tan. Troubling, if you're a Sisters fan. We actually saw Chris's list last week in the winning roster at the Northern Warlords Teams, and he's another player who's definitely getting in some teams reps with this. One of the reasons you take dual C'tan Expansionists to teams is for games like this though, which certainly starts him out looking strong.

Ben has, at least, built some tools into his Sisters list that provide ways of pushing back. The presence of an Inquisitor and Refrain of Blazing Piety on the Sisters side mean that they can one-round a C'tan, meaning that the Star Gods have to be a bit cagier about exposing themselves. They're still going to do plenty despite that of course, as you can power swap the Nightbringer to have Sky of Falling Stars as well and make a decent dent in the Sisters army over time, and if either the Dogmata or Inquisitor emerge they're at serious risk of catching Time's Arrow to the face. The Sisters do have some options to play a pretty good Secondary game though, which certainly ensures a fighting chance. Corner deployments are ideal for breaking left and securing Defend the Shrine, and doing so here will also interfere with Necron Secondary plans, making Machineries tougher. The list can also punk the Silent King at range pretty handily, making Code of Combat risky as well. You're also potentially able to take Psychic Interrogation for some relatively safe points, but that might be a gamble as it reduces the extent to which the Inquisitor deters the C'tan. This also feels like an easy eight on RND for the Sisters if they want it.

That probably assembles into a plan from the Sisters side - use the reasonably good secondary plan to pick up lots of points there, and focus on getting lots of eight point turns and hitting the mission Primary at the same time, with the aim being to try and deny the Necrons full points on their Secondaries that aren't Treasures of the Aeons (which is pretty much a lock for 15pts). Denying the Necrons points seems to have worked here, as the Necron scoreline was a lot more modest than some we've seen, but it looks like the Sororitas ran out of steam on scoring themselves, likely because at some point the attrition from the C'tan tips over to the point where they and the Silent King can just start bodying the rest of the Sororitas army out of the game, especially if Sky rolls hot on clearing out Retributors.

Result

Necrons Victory: 82-65

Chris Kinnair - Necrons - 1st Place

C'tan Shard of the Void Dragon. Credit: Rockfish

The List

See Showdown.

Archetype

Double C'tan Eternal Expansionists

Why it's Interesting in 9th

A different way of skewing Necrons to be sticky, and very good at pushing back against some key matchups like Sororitas and Tau. Both these C'tan are also excellent at murderising Knights, something that can be extremely valuable against Knights in particular, who tend to have the mix of ObSec and damage to be a serious threat to more conventional Expansionist builds. Great in teams, and powerful enough to triumph in singles, well done Chris on the win.

Daniel Whittaker - Harlequins - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Credit: Ben Hampshire

The List

Archetype

Twilight Saedath with a Webway Gate

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Twilight Saedath get their time in the sun...hrmm, that needs work.

Anyway, turns out there is a third Harlequin faction trait, and it's even really good, making large Troupes ultra deadly all the time, and granting you access to Malicious Frenzy for when something really needs to be buried under sheer weight of dice. Troupes need delivery, of course, and that's where the Webway Gate comes in - don't gamble on slogging those two large units across the table, and instead put down the gate and declare a pretty large portion of the table a murder zone where the opponent isn't allowed till turn three or four. That combines well with the rest of the army's ability to play skirmishing harrassment early on (especially with the Skyweaver units being very punchy with an extra attack), and you can also recycle units through the gate later with Virtuousos of the Webway. Harlequins are still doing very well generally, but it's noticeable that they're getting a lot of 4-1s that don't quite convert to 5-0s - but Daniel seems to have found the right tools to buck that trend.

The Rest of the Best

Five more players finished on 4-1 records. They were:

• 3rd - Jonathan Clarke - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff.
• 4th - Christopher Radford - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff.
• 5th - Ben Jones - Adepta Sororitas: See Showdown.
• 6th - Matthew McCurdy - Iron Hands: The latest in a long and storied tradition of "Iron Hands with the Ironstone and a big dumb Forge World Tank", in this case a Fellblade with a Leviathan, a Contemptor, and some Assault Centurions in tow.
• 7th - Adam Lynch - Tyranids: Leviathan with a whole bunch of Carnifexes.

Grand Tournament Hidalgo

35-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Temascalapa, Estado de México, MX on July 23 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Unknown

Alberto Lope - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff

vs.

Damián Flores Díaz - Drukhari & Harlequins: Drukhari Goodstuff toys and a Harlequin Patrol

Thoughts

I don't have a mission to anchor this one off, and the Aeldari list is a pretty unique curiosity, so this will be brief. Both these armies win by trading up, the Drukhari/Harlequins augmenting that with their mobility, and the Sisters with their ability to use Acts of Faith to create key pivot points, plus excellent Secondaries. Here, Drukhari having Raiders and some very fast flying trade pieces is really good for them - both help them govern how trades happen, and make it likely that exchanges gradually favour the Aeldari. They also have a very strong RND plan, and Take Them Alive is excellent in this game, and adding Engage or something on top of that means they shouldn't fall too far behind the Sisters on secondaries. That seems to have played out to a Drukhari win.

Result

Aeldari - 81 - 63

Damián Flores Díaz - Drukhari & Harlequins - 1st Place

Credit: Wings

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Drukhari Goodstuff with Harlequins.

Thoughts

Mostly this is covered in the Showdown - this list loves trading, and has fast melee units to make that happen, and Skyweavers to get stuck in at a point where sturdier forces are needed. It's also on -1CP without Raiding Forces, so can you play it at all without that? I think yes - you could switch the Drukhari contingent to be a Cult of Strife Battalion, and use Lelith instead of the upgraded Succubus. That takes you back up to 3CP and doesn't give up that much to do so - the basic plan still looks solid, and although it drops the lethality a bit this army isn't exactly short of lethal melee killers. Well done to Damián on the win.

The Best of the Rest

There were N more players on X-1 records. They were:

• 2nd (Undefeated with a draw) - Mauricio Ivan Valdez Murillo - Chaos Space Marines: Iron Warriors with lots of Havocs and Obliterators plus Abaddon.
• 3rd - Sebastian Flores Diaz - Astra Militarum: Gunnery/Spotter brigade with loads of demolisher cannons, tooled up infantry and MSUs of Bullgryns for Elites.
• 4th - José Alfredo Ku Chale - Tyranids: Jormungandr Territorial Lurk monster mash wtih tonnes of Carnifexes and Haruspexes.
• 5th - Isaac Gutierrez - Chaos Space Marines: Word Bearers with big units of Terminators, Possessed and Obliterators, plus Raptors for objective play.

Overwatch Battle Royale II

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Blacktown, NSW, AU on July 22 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Conversion

Michael Duke - Tyranids: Dakka Kronos with a PyroPod.

vs.

Egor Kalinin - Necrons: Silent King Eternal Expansionists with a big Destroyer unit.

Thoughts

At this point, I have to level with you that there has been a lot of Warhammer played this week and this article is very long already, so my brain is slightly fried by analysing too many games of Warhammer, too quickly. A new challenger from the Tyranids approaches here in the form of Kronos - extra AP makes stranglethorn Harpies more palatable, and Pyrovores in their pod even better than normal. Harpies also share the Sun Shark's ability to be pretty mean to the Silent King, though here punking out the Menhirs is a little less valuable unless they can clear some of those Destroyers as well, as otherwise the Necrons still very much have tools to bring them down.

It does feel, however, like the Tyranids might have the tools to clear out the Necrons at pace - with Warp Shielding up early they're unlikely to lose much to early Necron swings, and can clear off whatever gets sent into the mid board handily. The Necrons do have some spicier units to play with like the Lychguard block and the Destroyers, but on paper I would probably call this for the Tyranids.

That's a miss from me, because the Necrons ran away with it. On reflection, I suspect the driver there is that they can fairly quickly roll up all the Tyranid Troops, and after that the Tyranids have few enough things on the table to respond to all the Necron objective grabbers that they're not going to be able to stop them maxing out most of their Secondaries and the Primary. The fact that the Tyranids are unusually short on melee counter-charge stuff is also going to significantly exacerbate the issue, as it makes flipping the objectives high risk, especially against Wraiths and Lychguard with invulnerable saves, or a Catacomb Command Barge lurking behind a screen. Finally, Conversion is going to be a big contributor here too - the Tyranids will have a very tough time ever pushing into the Necron's deployment zone, whereas the Necrons can likely pick up 6pt turns at their leisure on two and three. Quite legitimately, the Tyranids could wipe the Necrons off the table on turn four here and the Necrons could still score essentially max points if they went first.

Result

Necrons Victory - 97 - 76

Egor Kalinin - Necrons - 1st Place

Credit: RichyP

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Silent King Eternal Expansionists.

Thoughts

Once more, with feeling. A particularly mobile spin with a big shooting threat from the Destroyers, making it much harder for some opposing units to move with impunity. Well done to Egor for rounding out a blockbuster week for the dynasties.

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more players on X-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Josh McMillan - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff
• 3rd - Michael Duke - Tyranids: See showdown.
• 4th - Joshua Brodie - Adepta Sororitas: Sacresant-heavy Bloody Rose Goodstuff.
• 5th - Ben Way - Tyranids: Leviathan Warrior Spam with a PyroPod.
• 6th - Richard Hill - Death Guard: Inexorable spamming Myphitic Blight-haulers.

Wrap Up

No let up next week, with what looks to be at least a couple of Majors and plenty of GTs to come. Will the Summer of Skorpekh continue? Will Chaos continue to surge with Abaddon at the head? Check back next week to find out.

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